how pyschological is our pickiness to food.

[Astreja]

There are some foods that I find so repulsive that I'm not interested in developing a taste for them. At the very top of the "foods I hate with the burning passion of a thousand suns" list are smoked oysters and Esrom cheese, and I'm not crazy about bleu cheese or kidney, either.

To put this in perspective, I kinda like haggis...

[The Grand Nudger]

I couldn't drink goldschlager until I prayed to Mammon.

[Minimalist]

I hate broccoli and no fucking god is going to change that.

[Angrboda]

I hate broccoli and no fucking god is going to change that.

Why would you hate lieutenant broccoli?  

[vorlon13]

I've noted a taste/texture thing with some items.

To me, spam tastes OK, but the texture is seriously off putting

In the case of mashed potatoes, taste AND texture are both totally disgusting, same with baked potatoes too. Even to the extent I'm amazed virtually everyone else loves them. Seriously.

As for yams/sweet potatoes, taste is not quite as bad, texture is somewhat better except for the string stuff (WTF?) but I still can't eat 'em. Blech.

Same for navy beans, peas, squash (except spaghetti squash, I like that) kidney beans and baked beans. Just GHASTLY !!

[RoadRunner79]

I know when I decided and prayed to like practically like all food, it happened. Before that, I was a very picky eater.  

It really happened to the extent, there isn't any food I have ate from sometime after (like a few months) that day but I enjoy.

Food even that I hated most, are some of my favorites now.

I think there are certainly, some things that are psychological about our eating habits.   Some things might just be our taste buds or the way that those signals are interpreted by the brain.  And I think that someone mentioned, that our tastes can change based on what our body needs. 

One for they psychological side of things that I am aware of for myself.  I used to eat wafer cookies in my school lunches when I was a kid.  (Something like this) I have never gotten stomach flu's and have not gotten sick to my stomach too many times in my life. However this time, these particular type of snacks where eaten just prior to getting sick to my stomach. Probably over 30 years later now, and I have absolutely no desire to eat that type of snacks. Even twix or kit kats are unappealing to me. I also had a girl friend in college, who from growing up on a farm (and seeing the animals slaughtered) could not eat meat (except for taco bell chicken it seemed). It would actually maker her sick, though it was just psychological.

[Mister Agenda]

There may be an anthropological aspect to cultural food preferences: Say you have two clans, one doesn't eat tapirs, one doesn't eat monkeys...they can live in the same forest without competing for meat. What the 'forbidden foods' are doesn't really matter, as long as each group has some that don't overlap. Of course this is highly speculative, but groups with such an unconscious 'non-compete clause' would have fewer reasons for conflict and more survivors due to less feuding and war.

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I know when I decided and prayed to like practically like all food, it happened. Before that, I was a very picky eater.  

It really happened to the extent, there isn't any food I have ate from sometime after (like a few months) that day but I enjoy.

Food even that I hated most, are some of my favorites now.

If I achieved the same results praying to Vishnu, what would you make of that? I would think it supports the psychological explanation for how you were able to get yourself to like food you previously rejected.

[Joods]

My kids will eat anything I make. I never made a big deal out of dinnertime or what we have. They eat most things other kids won't like Brussels sprouts and Lima beans.

[Angrboda]

Brussel sprouts are the bomb!

[LadyForCamus]

Evidence suggests there is a genetic component to food preferences.